Monitoring system for distributed antenna systems

ABSTRACT

A distributed antenna system (DAS) provides a plurality of DAS coverage areas for a wireless network. A plurality of statically deployed monitoring devices, each of which includes at least one radio frequency (RF) transmitter/receiver, are configured to run application tests, for example, for voice, messaging, or locations-based services, to provide testing of the wireless network to thereby generate test information related to the wireless network. An evaluation component and a control component respectively analyze the test information and adjust one or more parameters of the wireless network based on the test information.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.13/548,782, filed Jul. 13, 2012, entitled “Monitoring System forDistributed Antenna Systems,” naming inventors Shane Michael Elliott andBlaine Thomas, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 13/315,772, filed Dec. 9, 2011, entitled “Monitoring System forDistributed Antenna Systems,” naming inventors Shane Michael Elliott andBlaine Thomas, which applications are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. Field of the Invention

This application relates to wireless communications and moreparticularly to monitoring performance of wireless communicationsystems.

2. Description of the Related Art

Conventional wireless communication systems communicate over a cellularnetwork with mobile communication devices, such as cellular telephones,mobile computers, tablets, and other communication, computing, andconsumer devices. Conventional cellular systems provide communicationservices to the communication devices over wide areas, such as cities,using multiple transmission towers transmitting to respective macrocells. However, certain environments may have poor coverage due togeography, buildings, or other impediments to wireless services. Inorder to address such coverage issues, and provide enhancedcommunication capabilities over a relatively small geographic region,distributed antenna systems (DAS) have been deployed.

Distributed antenna systems include a plurality of spatially separatedantennas to provide wireless communication services for a limitedcoverage area. The coverage area of the DAS network may be a campus,stadium, office building, or other such limited geographic location orstructure. The power provided to each antenna is typically less thanthat provided to a transmitter of a conventional cellular system sincethe coverage area of each antenna is much smaller than a conventionalmacro cell.

Monitoring performance of conventional wireless networks to evaluate andadjust resource utilization to improve performance can be difficult.Monitoring of DAS networks can be even more problematic where the DASnetworks are deployed in limited geographic areas, such as an officebuilding or stadium.

Accordingly, improvements in monitoring network performance aredesirable.

SUMMARY

In an embodiment a distributed antenna system (DAS) provides arespective plurality of DAS coverage areas to provide at least a portionof a wireless network. A plurality of statically deployed monitoringdevices, each of which includes at least one radio frequency (RF)transmitter/receiver, are configured to run application tests to providetesting of the wireless network to thereby provide test informationrelated to the wireless network. A control component is responsive tothe test information to cause adjustment to one or more parameters ofthe wireless network.

In another embodiment a method is provided that includes running testsusing a plurality of statically deployed monitoring devices that testone or more of voice, data, and messaging services provided by a networkthat includes a distributed antenna system (DAS) including a pluralityof DAS antennas to generate test information related to the network. Oneor more parameters of the network are adjusted based on the information.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention may be better understood, and its numerousobjects, features, and advantages made apparent to those skilled in theart by referencing the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment in which a DAS deployment andmonitoring devices are located in a stadium.

FIG. 2 illustrates a high level block diagram of a DAS network.

FIG. 3A illustrates a high level block diagram of an illustrativemonitoring device.

FIG. 3B illustrates an illustrative monitoring device in a waterproofenclosure suitable for pole or wall mounting.

FIG. 4 illustrates an illustrative carrier network associated with theDAS deployment of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 illustrates a distributed architecture of an illustrative DASdeployment with monitoring devices.

FIG. 6 illustrates an outdoor deployment of monitoring devices accordingto an embodiment.

The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicatessimilar or identical items.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates an illustrative embodiment in which a distributedantenna system is deployed in a stadium venue. The distributed antennasystem includes antennas, which in an embodiment may provide amulti-band antenna capability to communicate over various frequencybands, such as 700 MHz, 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1900 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2400 MHz,and 5000 MHz. The various frequency bands may correspond to variouswireless telecommunication technologies including WorldwideInteroperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX); Enhanced General PacketRadio Service (Enhanced GPRS); Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)2000; Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP or 3G); Long TermEvolution (LTE); 3GPP Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)or 3GPP UMTS; Third Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) UltraMobile Broadband (UMB); High Speed Packet Access (HSPA); High SpeedDownlink Packet Access (HSDPA); High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA);GSM Enhanced Data Rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE) Radio Access Network(RAN) or GERAN; UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN); or LTEAdvanced. In addition, the wireless technologies supported by thedeployed DAS may include Wi-Fi or Wireless Fidelity, based on IEEE802.11 (a, b, g, n, etc.).

Each of the DAS antennas 101 (101 a, 101 b, 101 c, 101 d) provides acoverage area 103 (103 a, 103 b, 103 c, 103 d) associated with itsrespective antenna. For ease of illustration, only a subset of the DASantennas is labeled. The DAS network may provide wireless communicationservices for devices, such as cellular telephones, smart phones, tabletcomputers, personal computer (PC), or other wireless devices. Thewireless devices can communicate with the DAS network through variouswireless communication technologies, e.g., the wireless communicationtechnologies described above. As described further herein, the antennasof the DAS are coupled to the carrier network through a transport mediumcoupling the antennas to, e.g., a base transceiver station (BTS (forGSM)), a NodeB (a UMTS equivalent base station), an eNodeB (an LTEequivalent base station), and through the base station to the remainderof the carrier network.

The system illustrated in FIG. 1 may also include a macro cell 107 thatprovides communication services from a tower 109, coupled to the carriernetwork through conventional mechanisms. Note that the macro cell 107overlaps with the coverage provided by at least some of the DASantennas.

The system illustrated in FIG. 1 also includes a plurality of monitoringdevices 105 (105 a, 105 b, 105 c, 105 d). The monitoring devices areconfigured, as explained more fully herein, to execute scripts that testvarious aspects of the radio network provided by the DAS radio network.The monitoring devices are static and may be mounted on any suitablestructure, such as a pole, wall, or other mounting location. In anembodiment, the monitoring devices are configured to test multiple typesof communication services such as voice, data, messaging, andlocation-based services, for various communication technologies, such asGSM, GPRS, EDGE, CDMA2000, LTE, WiMAX, and WiFi. Based on the results ofthe tests, utilization of network resources and network performance canbe evaluated and various parameters of the DAS network and the macrocell(s) may be adjusted to provide improved network performance and thusa better user experience in the coverage area provided by the DASnetwork.

FIG. 2 illustrates a high level block diagram of an illustrative DASnetwork. The network includes a plurality of DAS antennas 201 providingcoverage areas 202, coupled to a base station 203. A controller 205,which may be, e.g., a radio network controller (RNC) or base stationcontroller (BSC), depending on the telecommunications technologiesdeployed, couples the antennas 201 to the core network 207. The antennas201 typically transmit with less power than a macro cell tower, showne.g., in FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 3A, illustrated is a high level block diagram of anillustrative monitoring device 105. The monitoring device may include anumber of radios 301 a, 301 b, and 301 c (radio 1 to radio N) tocommunicate over various frequency bands using various RF technologies.The radios may be provided by, e.g., wireless cards for, e.g.,802.11/GSM/UMTS. In at least one embodiment the monitoring devicesupports multiple frequency bands which may include, e.g., 700 MHz, 850MHz, 900 MHz, 1900 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2400 MHz, and 5000 MHz. The variousfrequency bands may correspond to various wireless telecommunicationtechnologies including Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access(WiMAX); Enhanced General Packet Radio Service (Enhanced GPRS); CodeDivision Multiple Access (CDMA) 2000; Third Generation PartnershipProject (3GPP or 3G); Long Term Evolution (LTE); 3GPP Universal MobileTelecommunications System (UMTS) or 3GPP UMTS; Third GenerationPartnership Project 2 (3GPP2) Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB); High SpeedPacket Access (HSPA); High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA); HighSpeed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA); GSM Enhanced Data Rates for GSMEvolution (EDGE) Radio Access Network (RAN) or GERAN; UMTS TerrestrialRadio Access Network (UTRAN); or LTE Advanced. In addition, the wirelesstechnologies supported by the deployed DAS may include Wi-Fi, orWireless Fidelity, based on IEEE 802.11 (a, b, g, n, etc.). The variousradios allow the device to test various wireless communicationtechnologies. One or more of the radios may operate on multiplefrequency bands as is known in the art.

The illustrative monitoring device includes at least one networkinterface circuit 305 that allows wired communication over, e.g., anEthernet connection. In addition or alternatively, universal serial bus(USB) and other serial or parallel communication interfaces may beprovided. The device may be able to test particular wirelesscommunication technologies, e.g., on UMTS and/or LTE, using one or moreof the radios and report test results over an out-of-band communicationpath. The out-of-band communication path may be, e.g., through networkinterface circuit 305 over an Ethernet connection or via a WiFiconnection. The out-of-band communication path allows test results to bereported without causing additional traffic for the wirelesscommunication technology being tested. The monitoring device includes aprocessor 307 and a memory 309. While a single processor and singlememory is shown in FIG. 3A, the device may have multiple memories. Forexample, memory 309 may represent various types of memories includingdynamic random access memory (DRAM), electrically erasable programmableread only memory (EEPROM), read only memory (ROM), one time programmable(OTP) memory, magnetic memory, such as hard drives and/or opticalstorage. The processor 307 may represent various types and numbers ofprocessors suitable to the particular applications the monitoring deviceis intended to test. For example, the processor 307 may represent both amicrocontroller and a digital signal processor utilized to performsignal processing functions associated with one or more of the radios.The processor 307 may be used to execute test scripts stored in memory309 to cause the radios to test aspects of the RF network as describedfurther herein.

FIG. 3B illustrates an illustrative monitoring device in an enclosurecontaining the monitoring device circuitry shown in FIG. 3A. Theenclosure may provide waterproof capability for pole or wall mount ofthe monitoring device in an indoor or outdoor location. In FIG. 3B, theembodiment includes four antennas, but other numbers of antennas may beutilized according to the requirements of the specific monitoring deviceembodiment and the telecommunication technologies being tested.

FIG. 4 illustrates an illustrative carrier network that may supportcommunications for the coverage area shown in FIG. 1. The illustratedcarrier network provides GSM, UMTS, and long term evolution (LTE)capabilities. By way of example, system 400 illustrates a Global Systemsfor Mobile Communication (GSM) path through base transceiver station(BTS) 420. BTS 420 also represents other types of base stations, such asa nodeB providing a High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) path or an eNodeBproviding a Long Term Evolution (LTE) path. System 400 further includescore carrier network components. An HSPA path can include, for example,a NodeB, Radio Network Controller (RNC) (not separately shown in FIG.4), Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) component 409 and Gateway GPRSSupport Node (GGSN) component 411. An illustrative LTE path can includean eNodeB and network components such as Serving Gateway (SGW) andMobility Management Entity (MME) components and public data network(PDN) gateway component (MME and PDN not shown in FIG. 4 for ease ofillustration). DAS antenna components 425 may couple to the base station420 through a telecommunications component 427 that provides necessaryrepeater or amplification for the signals to and from the DAS antennas.In an embodiment, at least some of the DAS antennas nodes may be coupledto their own base station 431 and through the base station to the corenetwork. In such an embodiment, repeaters may not be needed. While FIG.4 shows one embodiment of a carrier network, the DAS network shown inFIGS. 1 and 4 may be operable in multiple carrier networks havingtechnologies that may not be shown in FIG. 4.

Referring back to FIG. 1, in a venue, such as a stadium during asporting or other event, high numbers of portable communication devicesare present, putting a tremendous strain on the network resourcesavailable at the venue. The monitoring devices may be configured to runtest scripts that exercise various aspects of the telecommunicationsnetwork, such as voice, messaging, and location-based services. Based ontest results, parameters of the telecommunications network may beadjusted to better exploit the available resources of the network.

For example, one test script may cause a particular monitoring device totest voice services. The test script causes the monitoring device to geta connection, dial a test server, and verify that a voice connection hasbeen established. Success or failure of the test may be determined bythe time required to complete the test, which may be stored in memory onthe monitoring device for subsequent transmission to a control componentas described further herein. If the test does not complete, a time-outfunction may be utilized to determine failure of the test. The test maybe repeated for various technologies available in the network, e.g.,GSM, UMTS, and LTE. Based on the time to complete the test, networklatency associated with the particular tested network service, such asvoice, can be determined.

The test results may be reported out-of-band to the appropriate controlcomponent so as to not further load the network being tested. Forexample, the test results may be reported using the Ethernet interfacepresent in the monitoring device for transmission over a network, to alocal or remote collection component as described further herein thatcollects test results from multiple monitoring devices. The remotecollections component may be an evaluation component that receives allthe test results from the monitoring devices directly or indirectlythrough other monitoring devices. Thus, the test results may bereported, e.g., over WiFi to another monitoring device with an Ethernetconnection for reporting to the collection component. If those reportingpaths are not available, the test results may be reported over one ofthe network paths being tested. A priority may be assigned to particularreporting paths with the highest priority being the path, e.g., thatleast loads the network. Thus, in an embodiment, the highest priorityreporting path could be the Ethernet with the second highest reportingpath being WiFi, then GSM, UMTS, and LTE. In an embodiment, the priorityof the reporting path may be determined dynamically based on loading.For example, if a GSM frequency band is not heavily loaded, thatreporting path may be preferred over UMTS or LTE. While the Ethernet andWiFi connections allow for reporting of tests, the reporting paths mayalso be used to write to the monitoring devices to load new tests intomonitoring devices or adjust parameters of the monitoring devices, suchas preferred reporting paths. The monitoring devices may be configuredto run particular tests with particular frequencies. Thus, e.g., at avenue the monitoring devices may be configured to turn on an hour beforethe event starts and run tests with a particular frequency or atparticular times, or loop tests in a particular order.

Another test script may cause a monitoring device to test messagingservices. In the test, the monitoring device opens a short messageservice (SMS) application. The script causes the monitoring device tosend a text message to a particular phone number, which may be a phonenumber associated with a server in the carrier network. The test messagesent by the monitoring device may have a particular pattern of numbersand/or letters. The receiving device may send back a different patternof numbers and/or letters. Receipt of the second pattern may indicate asuccessful test. A time-out may be used to indicate failure of the test.Both the success/failure of the test and the time to complete may bestored as test results in the memory of the monitoring device forsubsequent communication to the appropriate control component in thenetwork. The message may of course include content other than just text,such as multimedia content, according to the particular aspect of thesystem being tested. The SMS related test may be repeated for thevarious communication technologies supported in the venue, such as GSM,UMTS, and LTE, according to their capabilities. Further, while in someembodiments the tests may be directed to a single carrier network, inother embodiments, the tests are directed to test networks associatedwith networks of multiple carriers. In that way, in situations whereservice agreements allow multiple carriers to use the DAS network,congestion across multiple carriers may be tested. Based on the time tocomplete the test, network latency associated with the particular testednetwork service, such as messaging, can be determined. The latency maybe associated with loading of the network. If the latency is long, thenetwork can be assumed to be heavily loaded, and turning on extraantennas or shifting spectrum from the macro cell to the DAS network mayprove beneficial.

In addition, while the destination address for a particular test may beexternal to the coverage area provided by the DAS antenna nodes, inother tests the monitoring devices may send voice, messaging, and othertests to other monitoring devices in the venue with the monitoringdevices responding in an appropriate manner to provide a voiceconnection or messaging response.

In still other tests, location-based services may be tested. A scriptmay be run that requests a location-based service be provided by thenetwork. A predefined indication of a location-based service from thenetwork, assuming the location of the monitoring device was successfullydetermined, may be provided by the network. Based on receipt or lackthereof of that predefined indication of service, the test can bedetermined to be a success or failure. A time-out may be used toindicate a failure if the predefined indication of a location-basedservice is not received within the necessary time. Time to complete thetest may be used as an indication of latency.

Referring still to FIG. 1, in the illustrated embodiment the monitoringdevices can be seen to be placed in overlapping coverage areas. Forexample, coverage area 103 a provided by DAS antenna 101 a overlaps withcoverage area 103 d provided by DAS antenna 101 d. In addition, macrocell 107 provided by transmitter 109 overlaps with multiple coverageareas of the DAS antennas. One aspect of the communication network thatcan be particularly wasteful of network resources in a communicationenvironment, such as shown in FIG. 1, is soft handovers. During softhandovers, a mobile device is connected to two transmitting antennas.For example, the DAS antennas may not be able to overcome the noisefloor present in the venue environment. As a result, the mobile devicemay try to find a better signal, which can be provided by macro cell107. But many mobile devices may try to do the same thing at the sametime, making communication using the macro cell very difficult.Accordingly, in one aspect, when a soft handover rate is determined tobe too high, appropriate action is taken to try to reduce the rate ofsoft handovers as described further herein.

Each of the monitoring devices may have a specific identification (ID)that allows the carrier network to identify them. One or more probecomponents in the network may be turned on at particular times thatparse network traffic for particular IDs associated with the monitoringdevices. In an illustrative embodiment, the test case, as defined on themonitoring device, executes and triggers the indicated probe(s) to startmonitoring specific traffic associated with a particular test case. Atthe end of the test case, the monitoring device triggers the indicatedprobes to stop monitoring the specific traffic related to the monitoringdevice test case. Having IDs uniquely associated with the monitoringdevices allows communications associated with each monitoring device tobe tracked at various locations using probe components. The probecomponents are represented at a high level as probe components 449, 451,453, 455, and 457 and are associated with various locations of thenetwork. The probe components may be stored in the various networklocations they are utilized. Thus, e.g., multiple probe components mayreside in the packet core network 412 and the switched core network 414to track information flow through the network. The particular probecomponents that are turned on may be unique to the particular test case.Thus, for example, a short message service (SMS) test case may turn onmultiple probes in the switched core network 414, e.g., at the mobileswitching center (MSC) and short message service center (SMSC) in theswitched core network and multiple probes in the packet core network412, e.g., at the SGSN 409 and the GGSM 411. The probe components may beturned on by the monitoring device sending a message to a particularuniversal resource locator (URL) address. The content of the message orthe particular address may be used to indicate which probe components toenable. Operating specific probe components during the tests allows datacollected from both the monitoring devices and the probe components tobe analyzed and appropriate decision made to enhance coverage in areascovered by the monitoring devices.

An evaluation component 429 receives the test results including theprobe results associated with the tests. The test results are thencorrelated by the evaluation component 429 to “paint” the picture of theperformance of the network end to end. The evaluation component 429evaluates the test results to determine what changes to make to improveperformance. The evaluation component 429 may reside centrally at thenetwork operations center 430 (see FIG. 4) as shown or elsewhere incommunication with a suitable control component 431 to affect thenecessary changes in network parameters. The evaluation component cangenerate a detailed picture of spectrum use that can be exploited tomore efficiently allocate the available spectrum. For example, as theevaluation component detects that traffic is getting heavier, e.g., asthe venue begins to fill with people, more DAS antenna sites can beenabled. During half-time of a sporting event, more DAS antennas can beturned on in the vicinity of concessions and bathrooms to accommodatethe surge in mobile devices present in those locations. Further, basedon the results from individual ones of the monitoring devices, thespecific locations in terms of level or seating area that need extraresources in terms of power, spectrum, and/or number of DAS antennas canbe identified. Further, the antenna tilt of the macro tower can beadjusted. Power of the macro tower(s) and/or the DAS network may beadjusted to provide additional resources to particular coverage areas.As the venue fills up, additional power may be directed from the macrotower to the DAS antennas. As the venue empties, the opposite may takeplace, where additional power is directed to the macro tower and thepower used by various ones of the DAS antennas may be reduced or theantennas completely powered off.

The collection of all of the data from the monitoring devices allows foraccuracy in determining which sector and/or antenna is having a specificperformance issue. Because of advancements in the DAS radio equipment,there are configuration capabilities in the DAS equipment that caninfluence overall DAS performance. These configurations are changedbased on specific data points collected from the monitoring devicedependent on the affected services. For example, assume there is acentrally located concession stand in a sports stadium. During the game,the performance of this sector is performing within its normal operatingrange. During half-time, this sector's network performance goes belowwhat is considered acceptable. A determination can be quickly made as towhat other sector(s) in the sports stadium are operating well above anacceptable level. The spectrum being utilized by those sector(s)operating well above an acceptable level can be bisected with aconfiguration change in the DAS equipment to move spectrum from thesector that was operating above acceptable and moved to the sector thatwas operating below normal. That may be accomplished by dividing theconcession sector further and adding spectrum to the affected sector.The evaluation component 429 may determine the soft handover rate is toohigh based on the number of failures from one or more of the monitoringdevices over a particular time period. The evaluation component maydetermine that the latency through the network is inadequate based onprobe data and/or test results.

Once it is determined that soft handover rate, or poor networkperformance is occurring, based on the test data collected by thedevices or by the probes in the network, a control component 431 inNetwork Operations Center 430 (FIG. 4) can be used to adjust parametersassociated with the DAS and/or the macro cell such as increased antennaamplification in the affected DAS sector(s), add antennas in theaffected DAS sector(s), bisect DAS sector(s) into additional DAS sectorsto add spectrum, decrease antenna amplification at the macro tower oradjust antenna tilt. Such parameters are intended to be illustrative andother parameters may be utilized to improve system performance dependingon the particular system and the parameters available to tune systemperformance.

The control component 431 may be implemented on one or more computersystems using software operating on the one or more computer systems inconjunction with necessary hardware for receiving requested actions fromthe evaluation component 432 and providing control information to theDAS antennas and/or macro cell towers to adjust parameters to improveperformance. While shown as located in network operations center 430,the control functionality may be distributed through the system as isappropriate to the particular network being monitored. Similarly theevaluation component 429 may be implemented on one or more computersystems using software operating on the one or more computer systems inconjunction with necessary hardware for receiving test results and proberesults and providing requested actions to the control component 431.The evaluation component may also provide management of the monitoringdevices by, e.g., providing test scripts and configuring various aspectsof the monitoring devices. The control and evaluation components, whileshown as separate components, may be combined and operate on a singlecomputer system. Alternatively, the evaluation and control componentsmay be remote from each other.

While a DAS venue deployment with the monitoring devices, such as shownin FIG. 1, illustrates one embodiment, deploying the monitoring devicesin conjunction with a DAS deployment may be utilized in other DASdeployment scenarios. For example, DAS networks may be deployed inoffice buildings, campuses, and other places where it may be difficultto build macro towers or coverage by macro towers is otherwise limited.Thus, referring to FIG. 5, an embodiment provides the monitoring devicesin various “neighborhoods” in which a DAS deployment has taken place.The “neighborhood” may be a building, campus, venue, or other area inwhich a DAS deployment is suitable. The monitoring devices 503 monitorthe network in a manner described in association with FIG. 1. Thus, themonitoring devices may execute scripts that cause the monitoring devicesto test network services, such as voice, messaging, location-basedservices, and loading, soft handoff, bandwidth, and other criteriaassociated with the DAS network. A group of the monitoring devicescommunicate with a site collector 505 that interacts with the monitoringdevice to collect test information, provide tests to the monitoringdevices, schedule tests and otherwise manage the monitoring devices. Thesite collector can collect status from the various monitoring devices,and/or deploy new test scripts or a special test script to obtainadditional data about a particular aspect of the system. The sitecollector can evaluate key performance indicators. Thus, the sitecollectors may provide management of the monitoring devices.Alternatively, the individual monitoring devices may be managed from amore remote location, such as from an evaluation component, such asdashboard 507.

Dashboard 507 represents the evaluation component such as evaluationcomponent 429 in FIG. 4 and includes such functionality as collectingthe test data from the various site collectors and the network probes(see FIG. 4), storing the test data in a database, and analyzing thetest data. The dashboard may determine whether certain threshold(s),associated e.g., with key performance indicators that are unique to thenetwork, in terms, e.g., of soft handover rate or latency are being met,and if not, request that appropriate control is exercised over thenetwork to improve performance in ways described herein. In addition,the evaluation component can provide for test case design and forforwarding test cases to the site collectors for distribution to themonitoring devices. The dashboard may provide the site collectors withcertain thresholds for analyzing data or key performance indicators. Theallocation between management functions between functionality closer tothe devices and more centrally located may be based on the configurationof the particular systems being controlled and the capabilities of thenetwork.

Because of the diverse network monitoring suites available, oneadvantage of the architecture shown in FIG. 5 is that the architecturemay be data only in design to allow for any system to interface with astandard application programming interface (API) to easily integrate themonitoring architecture into a diverse enterprise system architecture.While data parameters are collected on the test cases, they may notnecessarily be converted into specific key performance indicators (KPIs)or faults within the monitoring system (e.g., the monitoring devices andsite collectors). Definitions of such KPIs and faults may be determinedby the interfacing enterprise systems such as the network shown in FIG.4.

Consider a simple SMS test case involves a monitoring device sending aSMS message with a pattern, e.g., “1111111111”. The receiving endresponds with another pattern, e.g., “0000000000”. The monitoring devicerecords such information as the start time of the test, the time thatmessage was sent, the time the message was received and the conclusionof the use case. The determination of the acceptable duration of each ofthese time intervals, along with any intervals associated with probedata, may be determined outside of the monitoring architecture. Thus,the time stamps are determined by the test and evaluated externally tothe monitoring devices. The monitoring device may only conduct the testcase and record the defined data parameters. By turning on variousprobes, the network data may also be analyzed.

In an embodiment, the monitoring devices do not use scheduling of testcases by defined times. Instead, the monitoring devices may use analways-on approach. The run-time window test cases are defined andmanaged centrally and retrieved by the monitoring device. The monitoringdevice may have a configuration file which determines how often it“phones home” to check for a new operating file. This operating filecontains such information as the run-time window, test cases and testcase list/loop it should run. The run-time window tells the monitoringdevice on which days and which time frames it should run the appropriatetest case lists. This is a many-to-many relationship: multiple run-timewindows to multiple use case lists. For example: Run-Time Window1—08:00-20:00 Loop Test case list 1. This test case list could be1,2,1,3,1,4,1,1,5,4,1,6. Notice that use test 1 is listed more often inthe list to increase its run interval. The monitoring device would loopthis list continuously during the run-time window. Thus, for anafternoon sports match, the run-time window may specify 10:00 to 18:00on Saturday with the appropriate test case list.

The monitoring devices in the neighborhoods perform the same function asthose in the venue shown in FIG. 1, providing information as to theoperation of the network. The information can be used to adjustparameters of the network being observed by the monitoring devices tobetter exploit available network resources, such as spectrum, antennas,power, and antenna tilt. For example, the monitoring devices associatedwith a deployment in an office building or office campus may detect verylight loading nights and weekends, allowing more power and spectrum tobe allocated to macro towers serving adjacent residential neighborhoods.Similarly, during the workday, macro cells associated with residentialneighborhoods may have some of their spectrum allocated towards the DASantennas.

The DAS deployment and accompanying monitoring devices may be deployedoutside or inside. Referring to FIG. 6, an embodiment illustratesmonitoring devices 601 a-601 f, deployed on poles 603. The monitoringdevices deploy the segments 1-4 representing segment coverage areasprovided by antennas. Note that the DAS antennas (not shown in FIG. 6 tosimplify the figure) are coupled to communications circuit 605 and maybe pole-mounted on pole 603 at or near the communications circuit 605.Referring to segment 3, the monitoring devices 601 a and 601 b aremounted on pole 603. Communications circuit 605 may be associated withDAS equipment and provide a way to convert optical signals provided overoptical fiber 607 from a host unit 609 to radio frequency (RF) signalsfrom transmission over the DAS antenna, and RF signals received on DASantennas may be converted to optical signals from transmission back tohost 609. The host unit 609 communicates with base transceiver station611 over coaxial cables 610. The host unit and BTS 611 may be disposedin a shelter/enclosure 615. An Ethernet cable 617 allows the monitoringdevices to communicate over the Ethernet via communication circuit 605to the base transceiver station and through the BTS to appropriatemonitoring device controllers. Note that the devices may be powered overEthernet or powered over POTS in the manner of a conventional telephone.

The monitoring devices may communicate in a mesh network or an ad hocnetwork formed by the monitoring devices when other communication pathsfor a particular monitoring device are unavailable. For example, WiFimay be used to communicate test information from monitoring devices 601j and 601 k to another of the monitoring devices, since test devices 601j and 601 k, in the embodiment illustrated, lack an Ethernet connection.Thus, to simplify installation, and provide flexibility, only some ofthe monitoring devices may have an Ethernet connection and are able tocommunicate over WiFi or other communication path with an adjacentmonitoring device. In other installations, a mesh network is entirelyimplemented using WiFi or other wireless communication technology.

As used in this application, the term “component,” is intended to referto one or more specific functionalities, in which the component can beeither hardware, such as a hardware associated with a computing systemincluding one or more processors, or a combination of hardware andsoftware as part of a computing system, or software in execution on acomputing system or stored in computer readable media for execution.Thus, the various entities or components described herein, such asdashboard 507, evaluation component 429, control component 431, and theprobe components, may be considered components. Both an applicationrunning on a computing system, such as a server or network controller,and the computing system may be a component. One or more components mayreside within one or more applications and a component may be localizedon one computer system and/or distributed between two or more computersystems. Components may communicate via local and/or remote accessprotocols over local or remote networks. Thus, test results may beanalyzed by one or more computer systems such as dashboard 507 and theresults of that analysis communicated to one or more other components tocontrol the network to affect changes in the network related to themacro cells or DAS sectors.

As it employed in the subject specification, the term “processor” canrefer to substantially any computing device including, but not limitedto, embedded processors, single-core processors, or multi-coreprocessors. Such processors are found in various computer systems fromcell phones, tables, servers, and the like. Such systems typicallyinclude memory components. It will be appreciated that the memorycomponents, or computer-readable storage media, described herein can beeither volatile memory or nonvolatile memory, or can include bothvolatile and nonvolatile memory. Computer-readable storage media can beany available storage media that can be accessed by the computer.Computer-readable storage media can include, but are not limited to,read only memory (ROM), programmable ROM (PROM), electricallyprogrammable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable ROM (EEPROM), flashmemory, CD-ROM, digital versatile disk (DVD), or other optical diskstorage, magnetic storage including magnetic disks, or other tangibleand/or non-transitory media which can be used to store desiredinformation and can be retrieved by the processor or other component.

The description set forth herein is illustrative, and is not intended tolimit the scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.Other variations and modifications of the embodiments disclosed hereinmay be made based on the description set forth herein, without departingfrom the scope and spirit of the invention as set forth in the followingclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system comprising: a distributed antenna system(DAS), including a plurality of DAS antennas to provide a respectiveplurality of DAS coverage areas for a wireless network; a plurality ofstatically deployed monitoring devices, each of the monitoring devicesincluding at least one radio frequency (RF) transmitter/receiver, themonitoring devices configured to run application tests to providetesting of the wireless network to thereby provide test informationrelated to the wireless network, the application tests include testingof messaging services, wherein the application tests include testing ofvoice, data, and short message services, wherein at least one of themonitoring devices is configured to open a short message serviceapplication and send a first test message to a receiving deviceassociated with the system as part of a short message service test andto receive a second test message from the receiving device and to storetest results of the short message service test; an evaluation componentto evaluate the test information and determine changes to one or moreparameters in the wireless network based on the test information, thetest information including the test results; a control componentresponsive to the changes to the one or more parameters communicated bythe evaluation component to cause adjustment to one or more parametersof the wireless network based on the test information; and a macro celltransmitter/receiver providing a macro cell having a macro coverage areathat overlaps one or more of the DAS coverage areas and wherein theadjustment of the one or more parameters comprises shifting spectrumfrom utilization by the macro cell transmitter/receiver to utilizationby one or more of the DAS antennas.
 2. The system as recited in claim 1wherein the test information is reported by the monitoring devices overa plurality of paths in a path priority order that is determineddynamically based on loading of the paths.
 3. The system as recited inclaim 1 wherein the second test message has a different test patternthan a first test pattern of the first test message.
 4. The system asrecited in claim 1 wherein at least one of the monitoring devicesincludes a network path interface separate from the RFtransmitter/receiver.
 5. The system as recited in claim 1 wherein theadjustment of the one or more parameters further comprises adjustingtilt of an antenna associated with the macro cell transmitter/receiver.6. The system as recited in claim 1 wherein the adjustment of the one ormore parameters involves enabling one or more of the DAS antennas forcommunication or disabling one or more of the DAS antennas forcommunication.
 7. The system as recited in claim 1 wherein theadjustment of the one or more parameters further comprises adjustingpower of the macro cell transmitter/receiver.
 8. The system as recitedin claim 1 wherein at least some of the statically deployed monitoringdevices are configured in a mesh network to communicate the testinformation.
 9. A method comprising: running tests using a plurality ofstatically deployed monitoring devices that test voice, data, and shortmessage services provided by a wireless network that includes adistributed antenna system (DAS) including a plurality of DAS antennas,to generate test information related to the wireless network; opening ashort message service application in one of the monitoring devices;sending a first test message as part of a short message service testfrom the one of the monitoring devices to a receiving device associatedwith a server in the network; sending from the receiving device a secondtest message; receiving the second test message at the one of themonitoring devices; the one of the monitoring devices storing testresults in memory of the one of the monitoring devices, the test resultsincluding time information associated with the short message servicetest; evaluating the test information and determining changes to one ormore parameters in the wireless network based on the test information,the test information including the test results; responsive to thedetermined changes to the one or more parameters, adjusting the one ormore parameters of the wireless network; and wherein the adjusting ofthe one or more parameters comprises shifting spectrum from utilizationby a macro cell transmitter/receiver, having a macro cell coverage areathat overlaps one or more of the DAS coverage areas, to utilization byone or more of DAS antennas.
 10. The method as recited in claim 9further comprising reporting the test information over a path selectedbased on a path priority order of a plurality of paths, the pathpriority order based on path loading.
 11. The method as recited in claim9 further comprising communicating the test information from at leastone of the monitoring devices via a mesh network including another ofthe monitoring devices.
 12. The method as recited in claim 9 furthercomprising adjusting at least one of a tilt of a macro cell transmitterand power of the macro cell transmitter, in response to the information.13. The method as recited in claim 9 further comprising turning on oneor more of the distributed antennas of the distributed antenna system inresponse to the test information.
 14. The method as recited in claim 9further comprising: turning on one or more probe components inassociation with a beginning of one of the tests; tracking informationflow though the network using the one or more probe components; andturning off the one or more probe components in association with an endof the one of the tests.
 15. The method as recited in claim 9 furthercomprising enabling one or more of the distributed antennas of thedistributed antenna system in response to the test information.
 16. Theapparatus as recited in claim 1 wherein the test results include a timeto complete associated with the short message service test.
 17. Themethod as recited in claim 9 wherein the time information includes atime to complete the short message service test.